July 10, 2012

Rabid Reads: "Dark Faith" edited by Maurice Broaddus and Jerry Gordon

Dark
Faith

edited
by Maurice Broaddus and Jerry Gordon

Apex
Books (2010)

375
pages

ISBN
0982159684

Try bringing aspects of religion into
your horror writing and see what kind of reaction you get from the
God-fearin' folks. Or, you could just ask Maurice Broaddus about it.
Maurice, himself a devout Christian, has no qualms in recognizing the
darker elements of faith, as well shining a little of that gospel of
the terrifying. And considering the caliber of authors he coerced
into contributing to this anthology, the guy knows how to strike a
balance. It's just kind of funny to hear how such a nice, talented
guy gets such strange looks from others when they find out the kinds
of stories he writes. We've all been there, I suppose.

Dark
Faith
amasses thirty-one authors with short stories, and a couple poems,
that all deal in one way or another with faith. From that one
starting point, each author goes off on their own path, each story
following its own north star, as it were. Now, I'm still a guy who
doesn't shine towards poetry, so my focus was on the fiction.

Two short stories immediately jumped out
at the beginning of the anthology with disparate tones, but equally
rending effect. Jennifer Pelland's "Ghosts of New York" is
a sad portrait of a woman's afterlife in the wake of the 9/11
attacks. As I recall, Jennifer was a bit hesitant about how this
story would be received by readers, given its setting, but I thought
it was tragic feat of beauty. Then, there was Brian Keene's "I
Sing a New Psalm," with a hard-bitten tone that practically
jumps off the page and dares you to hit back.

From there, the anthology carries on with
stories like Ekaterin Sedia's "You Dream", a story I liked
despite its use of second-person POV which I rarely enjoy; Catherynne
M. Valente's "Days of Flaming Motorcycles", which was
already a favorite of mine after reading it online in a couple other
venues; plus Tom Piccirilli's "Scrawl" and an increasingly
creepy stroll through fetishism and self-loathing.

The book is just about the furthest thing
you can get from a religious screed designed to convert or dissuade
people from God. If you're thinking that, you can knock it off. This
anthology is a bit like a confessional, but more like a open-ended
prayer uttered to no one god in particular. Whatever ear the song
falls on, it is hopefully a friendly one. For an atheist like me, it
was kind of nice to see horror and faith meet with a more
sophisticated approach than evil priests and generic zealotry posited
as villains. What villains there are in this book are ourselves, more
or less. Our frailties. And no matter which god you believe in,
Westboro Baptists not withstanding, you ought to see that the book
may be dark, but it does shed some light on the idea of faith.

With
thirty-one stories and poems packed into one book, you are bound to
not like all of them, but--by
gawd--you
should like most of 'em.

There's
a Dark Faith 2
in the works, and I think it's set for release sometime in the latter
half of 2012, so you can bet that I'll be keeping my eye out for that
one when the time comes. I may not be a good little Christian
soldier, but I am a satisfied customer.